The component acids and glycerides of australian lumbang oil

A sample of nuts of the lumbang (candlenut) tree from North Queensland contained kernels yielding 62% of a very pale‐coloured oil, iodine value 164·3, and with extremely low free fatty acid content (0·3% as oleic acid). The component acids of the oil are palmitic 5·5, stearic 6·7, arachidic 0·3, oleic 10·5, linoleic 48·5, and linolcnic 28·5% (wt.). The component glycerides include about 32% which contain three linoleic or linolenic radicals, and about 53% with two of these groups, the third acyl group being oleic or saturated; one, and to a small extent, two, linolenic groups are probably present in all these mixed glycerides, totalling 85% of the fat. Attempts to prepare a highly‐unsaturated concentrate from the oil by crystallisation from solvents at low temperatures were not very promising, although 66% of the oil was so obtained from acetone at — 35°, with an iodine value of 179. The component acids and constituent glycerides of this fraction differed, however, very widely from those of linseed oil. Although differing in composition from linseed oil, lumbang oil of the high quality represented by the specimens studied should have considerable uses as a “drying” oil.